What is a cash flow waterfall?

A cash flow waterfall is a bar chart that walks from operating cash flow through capital expenditure to free cash flow, then shows how the remaining cash is allocated — acquisitions, buybacks, dividends, debt, and other financing — ending at the net change in cash. Each step is colour-coded: green bars add to the running total, red bars subtract.

How does Albertsons Companies (ACI) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Albertsons Companies generated $3.93B of operating cash flow and $2.09B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 53.2% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Albertsons Companies (ACI) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent Albertsons Companies's shareholder returns for TTM through Q1 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

Albertsons Companies (ACI) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$3.93B

Capex

-$1.84B

Free Cash Flow

$2.09B

FCF Margin

+53.2%

Cash flow waterfall for Albertsons Companies (ACI) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $2.09B

Note: Other Investing is large — driven mainly by acquisitions and investment activity.

Cash flow breakdown for Albertsons Companies (ACI) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$3.93B	$3.93B
Capital Expenditure	-$1.84B	$2.09B
Free Cash Flow	$2.09B	$2.09B
Other Investing	-$678M	$1.42B
Share Buybacks	-$1.33B	$88.6M
Dividends Paid	-$323M	-$234M
Net Debt Change	$888M	$654M
Other Financing & FX	-$780M	-$127M
Net Cash Decrease	-$127M	-$127M

Operating Cash Flow$3.93B
Capital Expenditure-$1.84B
Free Cash Flow$2.09B
Other Investing-$678M
Share Buybacks-$1.33B
Dividends Paid-$323M
Net Debt Change$888M
Other Financing & FX-$780M
Net Cash Decrease-$127M

Want to see what drove the FCF change?Free Cash Flow Bridge

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